It started with water. Cooped up in my compact Dupont Street jewellery studio back in 2017, I had begun to worry about the state of Toronto’s municipal water supply. Fuelling my concerns were the dump trucks that were idling at the curb predawn, waiting for the many condo construction sites to open for the day.
Toronto was growing at an alarming rate, and most of that growth seemed to be at my doorstep. Our aging wastewater management system already seemed overburdened. How would we cope with the greater demand of new condo towers? I began to dream about owning a rural property with a private well, so I alone would be responsible for water conservation.
I’m an impulsive person, and my biggest regrets have always been the things I haven’t done, and the times I’ve been too cautious. The timing was auspicious. I had no one who depended on me, and I owned the tiny commercial building that housed my shop.
I’d sell the building, close the studio temporarily, relocate to a rural property, and learn new things. I found my five-acre rural property in February 2019. A local agent tipped me off that he had an unusual property on the market that was being reduced in price.
I looked at photos of the exterior and was immediately attracted to a battered aluminum flat-bottomed boat upturned near one of the ponds. Let’s just say I wanted the boat, and the house came with it. The property was south of the village of Erin, in Wellington County.
My well-shod city feet felt like they .